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Sunday Ramblings & Considerations: 01.15.11

In this edition: Discover Palomino and City of Hope; The Caretakers focus on children of war; an excellent Camper Van Beethoven show on LMA, and this week’s VIDEOS!

Discover: Palomino

Out of Brooklyn, Palomino recalls the post-punk period of the late 70s and early 80s. An era where Elvis Costello and Billy Bragg rose to prominence, and when The Clash moved beyond watershed year of 1977 to become giants. Their upcoming, self-titled EP is marked by the steady, straightforward rock compositions of Elijah Campbell and Mike Sweeney, and Campbell’s soulful, fiery vocals. In an era of technological wizardry, Palomino excels at delivering rock-n-roll in its purest form.

They recently released a video for the slow burner, Ponte Vecchio. Directed by Pioneer One‘s Jonathan Hansen, it has an intimate, backstage feel to it. Watch it below. We’re also featuring a stream of Ghost Story, a bouncy rocker with a punk heart. Check out the entire release on Bandcamp.

Check out:Ghost Story

Watch:Ponte Vecchio

Discover: City of Glass

On The Diving Bell EP, City of Glass shines. This outfit from Vancouver delivers thoughtful indie pop that revels in shiny dance grooves full of intricate rhythms. Balancing bright guitar licks with beeping chords and atmospheric synth tones, The Diving Bell is a nice taste of what to expect from their upcoming full-length release. You can pay what you want for it on Bandcamp.

Watch: The Tourist

Check out: The Diving Bell EP (click below to pay what you want)

Consider These:

—The Caretakers revive the protest song with their track, Flowers for Peace. They are hoping develop awareness about children affected by war. Their evocative video for Flowers for Peace (in Videos, below) focuses on the plight of Sudanese children. It’s also a free download through Bandcamp.

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–There’s an excellent matrix mix of Camper Van Beethoven‘s January 5th show at the Mill in Iowa City. It’s in FLAC format, so no mp3s. Get it at the Live Music Archive, and peep this handheld video of Pictures of Matchstick Men:

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—Well, at least she looked good…Lana Del Rey had the jitters last night on SNL. She was immediately slammed by Juliette Lewis, who has tried like hell to get people to take her act, Juliette and the Licks, seriously. It was definitely too early for her to grace the SNL stage, but she’s the Tim Tebow of the indie pop world. I am sure that NBC was thinking, RATINGS!

I still think Videogames is a great pop tune, but Del Rey will have to become a better live performer if she expects to be remembered. She should also rethink who is managing her.

Here’s an ok performance of Videogames from Inas Nacht on German TV. She’s pretty stiff in this one too (but it’s better than the SNL performance).